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Mucus is right up there with moist when it comes to off-putting words, but if you can get past the ick factor, you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful way to predict fertility and ovulation naturally.

In fact, cervical mucus (CM) is one of the only signs of fertility that comes before ovulation, which is important because it’s almost too late to have sex when you’re ovulating if you want to get pregnant.

While you can track your basal body temperature and other signs to confirm ovulation, observing the different phases of cervical mucus will help you know when to make that baby.

While recording cervical mucus can be a natural, cheap, reliable, and highly effective component to avoid pregnancy using the Fertility Awareness Method (FAM) or Natural Family Planning (NFP), this post focuses on identifying your cervical mucus to help you achieve pregnancy.

Use this chart to clarify what cervical mucus looks like at different phases and when you are most fertile.

How to Check Cervical Mucus

There are three main ways to check your cervical mucus.

1. Toilet paper check

This is the simplest, easiest, and probably cleanest, way to check your cervical mucus. Simply look at your toilet paper after wiping. It may take a little inspecting, but as long as you’re ovulating, you’ll see it. (Bring the toilet paper to the light if need be!) Don’t be surprised to see more or less cervical mucus day-to-day or cycle-to-cycle based on multiple factors, including how hydrated you are or the way you pooped. In fact, some women only present cervical mucus after a strenuous bowel movement.

2. Underwear Check

Some women have effusive enough secretions that cervical mucus appears in their underwear. (It helps if you wear black underwear!) This may be a less intimate and accurate way to observe your cycle, because cervical mucus doesn’t have to actually leave your body to “count” or be a valid, daily reading.

3. Internal Check

Checking internally can become second nature, especially if you also chart the position of your cervix as an additional sign of ovulation. That being said, your vagina has a delicately balanced pH. Usually, the vagina is slightly acidic to help kill bacteria and other potentially harmful microorganisms. As you can imagine, introducing foreign substances from bacteria or soap residue on your finger or douching can disrupt the natural balance and potentially impact fertility.

As you embark on your cervical mucus charting journey, it’s important to track your body at the same time each day. Remember that your body may differ from others and that charting is just one tool to help you get to your end goal of becoming pregnant.

Cervical Mucus Stages

The date ranges listed below are based on a 28-day cycle. Some women will ovulate earlier in the their cycle, others later. That’s why observing and charting your own cervical mucus patterns is important to determine the signs of yourown ovulation.

Days 1-3 After Your Menstrual Period: Dry Phase

The first days after your period are known as your dry phase. This immediately follows your period and leads up to the appearance of non-fertile cervical mucus. Dry is a relative term. Your cervix and vagina will never be completely dry, as they are moisture-filled membranes. Most women report feeling a dryness or a lack of gliding when wiping. Charting over time will clue you in to what is a “dry” day versus a cervical mucus day for you. Once you observe the difference, you’ll never know how you didn’t notice it before!

Days 4-6 After Your Period: Sticky Phase

As you move closer to ovulation, your body starts producing non-fertile cervical mucus. This is often denoted as the “sticky” phase. It is usually white or cloudy in color and forms small sticky globs. (The best, slightly graphic description is likened to slightly cooked egg whites.) It will feel sticky or gelatinous; if you wanted to roll the little globs back and forth between your fingers, they would stay intact.

So what does egg white cervical mucus mean? Despite its interesting texture, it will not support and help sperm the same way the more fertile mucus will. While it’s certainly possible to get pregnant in some cases, intercourse during the sticky period will likely not result in a positive pregnancy.

Days 7-9 After Your Period, or Pre-Ovulation: Creamy Phase

During this phase, your cervical mucus will still be creamy or cloudy in color. Additionally, it will be abundant and thick and viscous, but not as sticky. This is considered semi-fertile cervical mucus. Many women choose to have sex every other day starting with the appearance of this creamy cervical mucus. Of course, if your partner has a low sperm count or motility issues, or if your schedules make it difficult to get intimate time, don’t worry! You are still a few days from peak baby-making time and ovulation. Sperm can stay alive inside the female reproductive organs for up to 6 days, so it is possible to get pregnant during this phase.

Days 10-14 After Your Period, or Your Fertile Window: Clear Phase

For your best chances of conception, time intercourse to coincide with this phase. As your luteinizing hormone levels rise before and during ovulation, your cervical mucus will become clear, abundant, and extremely stretchy. Your cervical mucus should resemble clear, raw egg white. It will feel like stretchy slime, be slightly sticky, and odorless. If you wanted to, you could stretch it between your fingertips at least an inch, if not more.

Why is clear cervical mucus fertile magic?

Clear cervical mucus means your body has reached its prime fertile stage. Cervical mucus at this stage is a nurturing environment for sperm. In fact, this stretchy mucus actually creates channels that help “catapult” the sperm up into the uterus and fallopian tubes.

You may notice an increased amount a day or two before ovulation. This is the perfect time to try making a baby! You only have a 12-hour window for the sperm to be in the right place to inseminate the egg. So, having sex before ovulation ensures you’ll have those little swimmers waiting patiently to do their job. If you want to get pregnant, try to have sex every day, or every other day, you have egg white cervical mucus.

After Ovulation

Your cervical mucus after ovulation will lessen and begin drying up almost immediately. As you wait to find out if you’re pregnant, you’ll notice subtle cervical mucus changes.

Your Cervical Mucus Before Period

Some women will notice a little creamier cervical mucus a few days before their period. As your uterus prepares to shed its lining, your cervix can push out some of this creamy discharge as a way to prepare for your menstrual cycle to begin. If you’re trying to get pregnant, know that you can also have some discharge even if you are pregnant, so don’t be discouraged!

Your Cervical Mucus Early Pregnancy

Cervical mucus in early pregnancy is not a reliable confirmation, but some women report experiencing yellow-tinged creamy cervical mucus in the days around their missed period. This could be due to the continued presence of progesterone in early pregnancy. However, it is much more reliable to look at other signs, like a sustained increased temperature for 18 or more days past ovulation or, of course, a positive pregnancy test. If you think this may have been the lucky cycle, you might also be experiencing some weird early pregnancy symptoms.

After a cycle or two of charting, you’ll be a pro at distinguishing sticky, creamy, and egg white cervical mucus from the dry phase or arousal fluid (much more watery and slippery). Use the above information as guidelines, but remember, every woman and every cycle is unique!

Charting Cervical Mucus When Your Cycle Isn’t 28 Days Long

Truth be told, many women don’t have a regular 28-day menstrual cycle. In fact, a “normal” menstrual cycle can be anywhere from 21 to 35 days long. Usually, women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), anovulatory cycles, perimenopause or other irregularities will see even longer cycles and longer phases in each. They might even see false peaks, where cervical mucus ramps up to pre-ovulation at various points in their cycle without actually achieving ovulation.

Some women may buzz through the phases in a matter of a few days; other women might see over two weeks of cervical mucus. This is why observing cervical mucus is an important but not all-encompassing aspect to understanding your fertility. It is essential to follow other signs to pinpoint ovulation.

If you aren’t cycling every 28 days or so, you may want to work on balancing your hormones to optimize your fertility and pregnancy journeys.

However, women will all sorts of cycles and issues from PCOS to perimenopause end up pregnant, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t have the ideal menstrual cycle.

Other Cervical Mucus Charting Tips

It takes time and practice to understand your cervical mucus changes. As you observe regularly, your signs of fertility will become more and more obvious. In the meantime, don’t get stressed, as this can affect your fertility!

The most important thing is to be consistent. Check each day at the same time and log it in a journal along with your basal body temperature.

Charting Cervical Mucus Can Be Fun

It’s weird to say, but charting cervical mucus is fun. It’s easy to do, and you learn so much about your body and your fertility. There is absolutely nothing more natural than following your body’s cues and indications of fertility.

Whether you track with an app, pen and paper, or simply observe, keeping tabs on your cervical mucus can be informative, empowering, and an important key to achieving pregnancy! Hopefully, this cervical mucus chart will help you understand the different cervical mucus stages and which types are the most fertile.

How About You?

What questions do you have about cervical mucus? What signs of fertility and ovulation are the strongest for you?

Jenneil Sep 22 at 7:13 am

Thanks so much for this article it cleared up so many questions and concerns that I had. I thought that something was wrong with me with having my discharges varying.
However I have a concern, sometimes when I pee or number 2 there is a small white discharge in the toilet that is clumped together it sought of looks like the size of a sperm. I only see it when I go off in the toilet sometimes. Is that normal??

Mariam Sep 8 at 4:42 pm

froddo Aug 30 at 7:15 pm

hello there. I am just wondering. I normally have a 28-34 day cycle. it is now day 35 and I am getting clear/milky stretchy/sticky discharge. probably more than I would normally get but that could be because I have been checking so closely. I have been really stressed recently and wondered, could my period still be coming, or am I likely pregnant.
thanks.

Mari Aug 29 at 11:45 am

Hi, I’m 42, suffered a miscarriage of twins in January of 2018. We’ve been trying consistently with no luck. I know my age is a factor, and we’ve been considering fertility treatments. Hope it happens soon. Article was very informative. Thank you.

Anny Jo Nettles Aug 26 at 6:37 am

Thank you for this article! Although I’m definitely not a teenager anymore and no baby making parts, it cleared up some questions I’d had growing up and even into my early 20s about those globs of “snot” I would hate to see every month when I was in school. Couldn’t talk about that stuff with my parents and I never went to doctors growing up (parents choice) so I never really knew what it was all about. I just figured out that as soon as I saw that mess, my period as about a week and a half away, maybe two. Now I know I was normal. Thank you!

Lulu Aug 23 at 3:08 pm

I don’t have white egg mucus on my ovulation day, I have some gelatine white mucus mixed with some white creamy mucus . I suffered from candida . And it gets worst on my ovulation day . I don’t know how to deal with it . That’s mean that I can’t get pregnant ?!

Team Mama Natural Aug 24 at 12:34 pm

Amanda Aug 21 at 5:39 am

Great article! The illustrations here showing the mucous changes on the various days is very helpful, but I am a bit confused as to how the pictures are labeling the day ranges. The first picture says “__days AFTER period” which makes sense to me, but i get confused with the last picture that says “Day 10-14” Is the illustration saying day 1 of the period as meaning the begin of the uterine lining shedding or is it meaning Day 1 is day after the end of the uterine lining shedding? Or is it switching between the two ways of wording it? I always thought day 1 was when the uterine lining begins to shed and we bleed, so is the first picture describing mucous seen in the presence of the bleeding that occurs on day 1 of the cycle?
For me, if the last picture says “days 10-14”, with my 28day cycle, and if I’m on period for 5-6 days it would mean my fertile mucous should typically appear around 10-14 days After my period which is day 16-17 of my menstrual cycle. But I thought day 14 was the typical day to predict ovulation for a woman with 28 day cycle. Hope I didn’t confuse anyone else also. I’m new to this and was trying to make sense of what to possibly expect as far as the mucous with my 28 day cycle. I’m so confused lol. Could anyone help me understand please? Thanks!

Team Mama Natural Jul 20 at 12:42 am

Celeste Queen Jul 30 at 10:01 pm

julie Jul 11 at 10:27 am

I had period then after week and bit was very wet creamy when wipe white gooey mess on toilet paper very wet almost drip at times. Had that for about 3days then had about 4days where I noticed nothing then now 2days of much thicker white like coconut cream or condensed milk bit just tiny bitthinner hard to explain. But nowhere near as wet as previous mentioned cm when was the fertile window or what does it mean and why the few days of not noticing anything between the to noticeable cm please can you help me figure it out. Had sex during the of appeared not cm between to explained cm types. Was that my fertile window

adija sophianu May 27 at 4:42 am

Majo Aug 15 at 11:51 pm

Prestige May 6 at 1:45 am

Please I have been seeing mucus since 5th day of my menstrual cycle till now. Sometimes it’s looks like pap, also like catarrh and watery pap yet I have not seen egg white. Please it’s the mucus fertile? Am on 32 days cycle. Thanks

Ugochi May 1 at 6:11 am

Lilttle helper May 1 at 4:46 pm

Hi. Sorry to hear the news. Did you consult with your doctor and let her know you had a really short cycle? Did you get a blood test done after the miscarriage to see if your harmone levels have gone down?Getting a blood test is important. You should be able to ovulate and get pregnant very soon. Wish you well and good luck.

Team Mama Natural May 1 at 5:57 pm

Sharda Lee Mar 9 at 12:43 pm

I was looking at your the fertile chart online and, this is the first chart I’ve seen it being said that a women don’t become fertile until at least 6 days after her period. So if this is the case does that mean you ovulate about a week before your period? Just trying to get clarification. New to this ovulation tracking thing lol!